Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Fringe 1x07: "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones"

FBI Agent Mitchell Loeb is being debriefed by Broyles - Loeb was tracking the shipment of illegal goods supposedly being trafficked by a man named Joseph Smith. Unfortunately, someone tipped Smith off and they never found what they were looking for. Before he can complete his report, Loeb collapses. When he's taken to hospital, the surgeon discovers a giant, tapeworm-esque parasite wrapped around his heart.

It's up to the Fringe Buddies to save him - since it's clear this strange parasite slowly constricting Loeb's heart is no natural creature. Walter takes a sample from the creature and discovers a literal code in its genetic code - a repetitive line in the creature's DNA that, when decoded, spells out the letters ZFT.

Broyles admits that the ZFT is a terrorist organization comprised of Mad Scientists connected to the Pattern. A man suspected of being a member of ZFT, David Robert Jones, was recently arrested in Frankfurt and is being held in a German prison - and seeing as Loeb was recently in Frankfurt, investigating Jones, Olivia doesn't think it's a coincidence.

She travels to Germany to question Jones and meets up with a fellow agent and ex-boyfriend Lucas Vogel (the Drunk Uncle from Revolution). Unfortunately, Jones will only see her if she lets him ask a question of Joseph Smith. The only problem? Joseph Smith is dead - as of five seconds ago, when Peter was unable to prevent him from being gunned down by the FBI.

Walter falls back on his signature move, which is to give someone a bunch of drugs and shoot them up with electricity. While Peter is tripping balls on a sedative, Walter attaches his brain to the dead Joseph's and lets the sparks fly. In Germany, Jones tells Olivia that he wasn't the one who infected Loeb. Instead, he suggests that outside forces have manipulated the situation because they're looking for information from Olivia and Jones. Olivia's not convinced - still, she lets Jones have his question. "Where does the gentleman live?" Jones asks. After getting repeatedly zapped, Peter comes up with the words, "Little Hill." Upon hearing the response, Jones provides the recipe for subduing the parasite.

Loeb's parasite is successfully removed - which is a good thing, since as we learn at the end, he infected himself in order to learn the answer to Jones' question. What's Loeb up to?

Mad Science:

Heart-Squeezing Parasites

Electrical Transference of Thoughts

Best Death Scene: There's really only one death in this episode, but Joseph Smith takes a killer bullet to the head.

Mad Science Questions:

So how many feels, exactly, did you get when Peter called Walter "Daddy" for the first time in probably decades? Hmm? It's for Science, I promise.

Walter also apparently experimented on Peter as a child. Welp, there go those feels...